


An Unexplored Realm

by jackabelle73



Series: Rumbelle Travels [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 11:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11782248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackabelle73/pseuds/jackabelle73
Summary: Rumple and Belle, along with ten-year-old Gideon, visit the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.





	An Unexplored Realm

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on Tumblr a few days ago, and included three pictures that I think add to the story. It was part of the Rumbelle Summer Vacation event there. If you'd rather read it on Tumblr, it's here: http://jackabelle73.tumblr.com/post/163730746092/an-unexplored-realm

“Is that it? Is that where we’re going?” Gideon sat up to peer over the heads of people in front of him and through the windows of the catamaran.

Belle craned her neck trying to see as well, but as usual could see no more than the back of people’s heads. Her son, who at age ten was already as tall as his father, could obviously see something she couldn’t, without even standing up. She half stood to take a quick look, seeing the pontoon come into view. It was a large white structure, rather like a houseboat, with two levels and canopies for shade. Even from this distance, she could see people moving from place to place on the deck.

image  
“That seems to be it,” she confirmed, settling back into her seat.

“So when we get there, we’ll be in the Great Barrier Reef?” Gideon questioned.

A polo-shirted staff member heard the question as he passed by. “Mate, you’ve been in the Great Barrier Reef for the past hour, didn’t you know?”

“We have?” He stared after the man in wonder before spinning back to Belle. “Mom, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Sweetheart, I thought you knew,” she responded, still feeling a bit of a pang when he called her Mom. Gideon’s tenth birthday had brought about all sorts of changes… among them, the conviction that he was much too old to call her Mommy. She missed the days when his little voice would call out for Mommy a hundred times a day. “Weren’t you listening when we went to that seminar last night?” He gave her a blank look, so she elaborated. “The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living organism on Earth, and the only one of the seven natural wonders large enough to be seen from space. That should have told you that we’d be in the Reef long before we docked at the pontoon.”

He rolled his eyes, a recent addition to his physical vocabulary, and one that she’d been hoping wouldn’t appear till he was a teenager. Just give me a couple more years with my sweet baby, please, she sent out a silent prayer to whatever entity might be listening. Just another year or so, before he’s so tall I need a ladder to hug him and he becomes moody and brooding and wants nothing to do with me.

“Mom, if I wanted to sit in a classroom and be lectured, we could’ve stayed in Storybrooke. We didn’t come all the way to Australia so I could sit inside and–” He cut himself off, his mouth staying open mid-word as he stared at something over Belle’s shoulder.

“Gideon, what–” She turned to look, and smothered a giggle.

Rumplestiltskin, aka The Dark One, and according to his passport at least, aka Rumford Paul Gold, was making his way toward their seats in baggy swim trunks that came down to his knees, a snug electric blue swim shirt that covered him down to the wrists and zipped up high on his neck, and a wide-brimmed straw hat. Water shoes covered his feet; the only areas showing bare skin were his hands, face, and the length of his calves.

“You can both save your comments,” he said as he approached. Belle could almost feel, without looking, how close Gideon was to losing it. “I will not be victim to the sun again.”

“Your precautions are… understandable,” Belle said. One of their first family vacations, back when Gideon was just three, had been to a beach resort. She’d made sure that Gideon and herself were covered with sunblock for their first beach outing. Her husband, the all-powerful Dark One, refused to believe that he could be harmed by the sun’s rays… and had paid for it the rest of their trip.

“Do you have something to say, son?” Rumple asked, his gaze sharp on Gideon. 

“No, Pops. Not me.” Their boy turned to face front in an obvious attempt to avoid looking at his father, and gasped as he saw that they were approaching the pontoon. “We’re here! We’re here!”

A crewmember’s voice came over the PA system, telling everyone to stay seated while the crew secured the boat. Before too long, everyone was transferring to their floating base of operations for the day and being issued a full-body swimsuit.

“D’we have to wear this?” Rumple asked the woman who handed him one. He looked at the jumpsuit dubiously.

“They’re not required, sir, but we highly recommend them. They’ll protect you from sunburn and also from any injuries you might sustain from the reef itself.”

“Looks like your current outfit isn’t needed,” Belle murmured.

“How’s the reef gonna hurt us?” Gideon asked. Belle refrained from mentioning that that topic had been covered at the seminar they’d attended last night.

“If you brush up against the coral, it can easily cut and scrape your skin. It hurts and those injuries don’t heal easily. This will protect you.”

“It looks stupid,” Gideon decided. “I’m not wearing it.”

“Gideon Gold, if you want to touch water today, you’ll take a suit in your size and put it on,” Belle stated. She took the red suit the woman handed her and walked away to find an empty table to set down their things, not bothering to look behind her and see if he complied.

A few minutes later, with minimal complaints, the entire family was outfitted in the recommended suits, and had snorkeling gear handed out by another smiling tour guide. Moving stiffly in the restrictive clothing, they made their way down a few steps to a platform that sat just a couple feet below the water’s surface. This was where they’d been told they should put their flippers on their feet before entering the designated snorkeling area.

A few people were already lowering themselves into the water, which was clearer than any water Belle had ever seen, on earth or any other realm. The first step down onto the platform – putting her in water halfway to her knees – made her shiver with how cold it was. She took Rumple’s hand, smiling at him from behind her snorkeling mask, looking for familiar brown eyes behind his own mask.

“Mom…Pop…. can we go already?” Gideon had already put on his flippers and was standing on the edge of the launching platform, waiting none too patiently to enter the water.

Rumple tore his eyes away from Belle’s.

“You can get in,” he told their son. “Stay right next to this platform till we get in with you.”

With a joyful whoop, Gideon jumped straight in… and bare seconds later, reemerged with a shriek. “It’s so cold!” He immediately ducked his head back under the water, this time with the mouthpiece clamped firmly between his teeth, and floated next to the platform with his face beneath the surface.

“Come on, let’s get our flippers on so we can join him.” Belle tugged Rumple over to the bench next to a large family with four kids and an older couple, and they wrestled the unfamiliar footwear on. Gideon popped up again, water streaming off his dark hair, and spit his mouthpiece out.

“Mom! Pop! Can I have that water camera? I see lots of fish already!”

Rumple handed him the special waterproof camera they’d bought for today, and their boy disappeared again.

“How long do you suppose it’ll take for him to use up all the pictures?” Rumple asked, standing up carefully and offering a hand to Belle.

She also took great care in standing up, trying not to fall over in the ridiculous flippers that added several inches in front of her toes that she had to be aware of, lest she trip and fall face-first in the water. She was used to several added inches under her heels, but not at the ends of her toes! Although getting in the water was the eventual goal, she’d prefer to do it with a bit of dignity.

It took a few more minutes – sitting on the edge of the platform first, then gradually easing her way into the chilly water, with Gideon surfacing every ten seconds to tell them to hurry – before they were both in the water next to their son.

“Finally! Can we swim out now? There’s someone over there, showing people something that he got from the bottom. It looks like a giant orange worm! Can I go see?”

Rumple looked over to where a man was holding something – which indeed, looked like a giant orange worm from here – and talking to a group gathered around a flotation ring.

 

“Go ahead, just stay where we can see you.”

The enthusiastic kicks from his feet as he lunged away, splashed water in both their faces. But Belle couldn’t be annoyed. They were in the Great Barrier Reef, it was a gorgeous day, they had an entire underwater world to explore, and their son’s excitement was contagious.

They swam out a little way from the pontoon, freeing up the area where snorkelers were getting in and out of the water. The flippers really made a difference, once Belle got used to them. Each kick of her legs propelled her further and faster than she’d ever been able to do with bare feet. She’d have to tell Ariel when they got back, that for a few minutes she almost felt like a mermaid. Holding her breath and dipping her head under the surface, she got her first good look at the colorful marine life that she’d only glimpsed from above. 

Running out of oxygen, she came up to grin at her husband. “It’s amazing down there,” she told him. “Take a look.” She looked over to where Gideon was still captivated by the giant orange worm, ensuring he was still in their eyesight.

“Why don’t you put in your mouthpiece and stay down longer than ten seconds, take a proper look around?” She glanced toward their son again. “I’ll watch him, don’t worry. You relax and enjoy yourself for a few minutes, and then I’ll take a turn underwater. Deal?”

She dropped a quick kiss on his lips, hampered by the bulky masks they both wore and barely making contact. “It’s a deal.” Clamping the mouthpiece between her lips and articulating an exaggerated two into it to clear the water out as they’d been told, she lowered her face into the water and pushed off from Rumple. She kicked her feet just a little, putting some distance between them, before she relaxed and just let herself float.

Bobbing weightless in the water, she let her muscles relax and trusted the water to support her. The temperature, which had seemed frigid at first, now felt refreshing and a nice contrast to the hot sun that she could feel on her back, even with the special jumpsuit she wore.

A small school of yellow, black, and white fish passed by a few feet below her, lazily moving from side to side. 

image  
A swarm of tiny silver minnows appeared in her field of vision, and she flicked her fingers at them, remembering something the teacher said last night. Sure enough, that one small motion was enough to send the entire mass darting one way and then another, as she flicked her fingers at them again.

The minnows swam on and Belle relaxed again, content to observe the marine life pass by rather than chase after it. She was aware that there were other tourists scattered around her, snorkeling as she was, or swimming. Somewhere further out, there should be a group scuba diving as well. But here, in this moment, there was only the bright coral below her, the endless variety of fish swimming by, and the sound of her own breathing, amplified through a tube. It was like she was part of an aquarium, and wondered idly if there was a deity watching her from the sky above, as she watched the fish below.

Gideon’s voice broke through her reverie, cutting through the strange pulsating echo of the water current. Belle came up, her eyes immediately finding her son several feet away, who was gesticulating wildly as he told a story to his father. She grinned to see the bemused look on Rumple’s face, and swam closer.

“What did I miss?” she asked, when she reached them. “Was it a giant worm?”

“No! It’s not a worm! It’s a sea cucumber!” The mouthpiece of his snorkel bounced next to his head as he emphasized his announcement with a nod. His wet hair was plastered to his face.

“Really? Did you learn all about them?” Belle asked, trying not to smile too broadly as she guessed where this was going.

“Yeah! And guess what? Guess how the sea cucumber breathes, Mom?”

“Uh…. through its mouth, like most living creatures?” she asked innocently. From the corner of her eye, she could see Rumple holding back a grin and knew that he remembered too.

“No! Through its butt!” Gideon threw his head back to howl his amusement to the open blue sky, his hands slapping the surface of the water and splashing them again.

Belle caught Rumple’s eye and they smiled at each other, almost in sync. Their baby might be gone, but this light-hearted, adventurous boy was theirs for a few years longer. The world was waiting to be discovered… starting with the underwater realm beneath their flippered feet.

**Author's Note:**

> Some of you might notice that I changed my username -- again, for the second time in under four months. Apologies for any confusion, but I had second thoughts about the previous name and decided to change it. I like this new name and think I'll be sticking with it. 
> 
> I created a series label, "Rumbelle Travels" b/c I like the idea of writing Rumbelle exploring the world and may write more short fics with that theme.


End file.
